Marcella Hayes Muhammad

Marcella Hayes Muhammad is an award winning fine artist, recognized for her popular licensed art series of “Ladies With Hats.”  Marcella uses realism, still life, abstraction, impressionism, and her own style named Plastic Space to convey her message.  Pablo Picasso’s Cubism, which explores the linear effect of light on objects, was Marcella’s inspiration to develop her own signature style of representational abstracts she named Plastic Space. 

 Marcella has exhibited her work in schools, museums, galleries and art festivals throughout the country.  In 2002, Marcella’s work was accepted in the Hampton University Museum’s “New Power Generation, A National Juried Exhibition of African American Art”.  She is very proud of the Southern Roots™ Distinguished Alabama Artist Award from The Academy of Arts, Inc. at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and the fact that they purchased one of her works for their permanent collection. Another exciting time was when Marcella was commissioned to do a painting of Cleopatra VII for the APEX Museum in Atlanta, Georgia. It was featured with two other of her works in their video presentation entitled, “The Journey” narrated by the late Ossie Davis and shown on a regular basis in their museum theatre. A more recent crowning moment was to have the National Center for the Study of Civil Rights and African American Culture Gallery at the University of Montgomery Alabama purchase two of her works and accepted another for their permanent collection. Marcella's artwork is in many private and public collections across the country and abroad.

 Marcella earned her BFA with honors from the California State University at San Bernardino.  She also studied at the California College of Arts and Crafts at Oakland and the University of California at Riverside.  Her formal training and extensive experience has given her an extraordinary range of style and media few artists possess.   She is active in local art organizations, participating in many art conferences where she has served as a guest-speaker, demonstrator, and conducted master-classes and workshops.

STATEMENT: I have found that through my formal training, I have developed a split personality in my art which I enjoy very much. I use realism to convey my strong feelings of history and events that tell a story  affecting my world. This is the serious and teaching side of my art. I also use it for licensing purposes on greeting cards and products. My Plastic Space is a challenging tool that leads me into adventure and exploration. I plan a direction and often, the painting plans it's own direction resulting in a surprise and pleasing finish even to me. The binding element of the two styles is my use of color, application and attention to detail. My chosen palette is warm using strong  earth colors.